Dell MD Array Feature Pack - Out of Compliance

Summary

Feature Pack - Out of Compliance

The causes and resolutions refer to the Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager recovery guru. Launch Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager to diagnose and fix the recovery failure as follows:

• Open Start >> Programs >> Dell >> MD Storage Manager >> Modular Disk Storage Manager Client.

• If the MD Storage Array is already being managed by MDSM, you can proceed with the Causes and Resolution sections.

• From Edit -> Add Storage Array, provide the IP address of the MD Storage Array and Add it to the discovered devices configuration in order to manage it.

• Select the MD Storage Array and follow the steps specified in this recovery guru.

Causes

The feature pack that is enabled for this storage array is Out of Compliance. This problem can occur in the following scenarios:

• Scenario 1 (Most common scenario) - The storage array has one or more features that do not comply with the limits set (or the features are not supported) by the current feature pack.

• Scenario 2 (Less common scenario) - You connected physical disks to one or more RAID controller modules where 1) the RAID controller modules were NOT previously attached to any physical disks, and 2) the physical disks were already previously configured while attached to other RAID controller modules where a different feature pack existed.

The Recovery Guru Details area provides specific information you will need as you follow the recovery steps.

Important Notes

• A feature pack defines the features supported by the storage array and also defines the limits of those features. Upgrading to a higher feature pack can increase the limits of the features while disabling a feature pack (which is not recommended), decreases the limits of some of the features or possibly remove support of some features completely.

• This problem may result in other reported problems in the Summary area, such as individual out of compliance features or device limits exceeded. Complete the recovery steps for THIS problem first before addressing any other problem. After you click the Recheck button, some or all of the other problems may be resolved.

• Scenario 1 typically happens because you performed one of the following actions:

  • You disabled a feature pack key which lowered the limits of one or more features.

  • You enabled a feature pack key which downgraded the limits of one or more features.

  • One or more features exceed their individual limit, causing the overall feature pack to be Out of Compliance.

• Scenario 2 happens because the RAID controller modules were not previously attached to physical disks, so the RAID controller modules 'adopt' the configuration database of the first physical disk they encounter. When physical disks are adopted by the RAID controller modules, the configuration database contained on the physical disks (which includes all of the information about the previous storage array, including the feature pack and enabled/disabled information of features) is used by the RAID controller modules. Therefore, the information in the configuration database shows a different feature pack that supported different limits than the RAID controller modules currently support. If the RAID controller modules had been previously attached to physical disks and then another set of physical disks are added, then the new physical disks would be 'imported' (overwriting the configuration database) rather than 'adopted' since the RAID controller module is using the configuration database of the existing physical disks.

• While this feature is in an Out of Compliance state, you will NOT be able to:

  • Create new configuration objects (automatically or manually) - such as virtual disks, snapshots, replication relationships, virtual disk copy pairs, and storage partitions

  • Assign hot spares

  • Change the segment size of a virtual disk

  • Change the RAID level of a disk group

  • Expand the capacity of a disk group or virtual disk

Resolutions